Archive for:
November 2014

How do you turn CO2 gases from cars into vitamin supplements or even cosmetics? Recycle it! Architects from The Cloud Collective outfitted a busy Geneva highways with a sort of algae garden that literally sucks up the gases of passing cars. And it’s perfect, because the only thing algae needs to survive is sunlight and CO2 gases.

According to one of the scientists in the collective, Joris Lipsch, algae setups in cities are inevitable. While they may be unattractive, they’re quite fitting to help in our daily lives. For this purpose, Terry Richardson says the scientists chose to adapt the garden to the site instead of opting for a conventional garden. The result is a tubular system that proves that these highly productive systems can be adapted to any environment, leaving fertile ground for other uses.

So how does a person use this gas sucking highway algae into supplements or make up? The algae is harvested by draining the tubes and filtering the green goo inside. Adding to the list of useful solutions; biofuel and green electricity. Algae produces five time as much biomass as plants.

Even though the test in Geneva was only up temporarily, as part of a local festival, similar experiments are being built elsewhere on buildings, roofs, and even bridges. With the obvious pollution crushing benefit, designers believe the gardens are perfect for cities around the globe. Rethinking the potential of structures considered to be industrial or part of a wasteland can turn the page on urban pollution in many cities. With fertile land and green space becoming a scarcity, it could be crucial.

Researchers had a group of men ingest just 360 calories a day mostly in liquid form such as protein drinks. They were then instructed to engage in vigorous exercise for about 10 hours a day with 10 minute breaks in between. The results were not surprising given the amount of deprivation these men went through. In just four days they were found to have lost about 11 pounds each.

The interesting results came when they did not gain all the weight back after they went off this plan. Dr. Calbert said “We thought they would overeat and regain the weight lost”. He was surprised to see that a month after being back in their regular lifestyles, most of the men had lost an additional two pounds. In fact, a year after the experiment most of them were still down five pounds from their initial weight.

These results increased Dr. Calbert’s curiosity, so he hopes to conduct similar studies on women in the future. He would like to find out if these same results would occur in women. His goal is to formulate a healthy successful program for weight loss using this information.

To make it worse, Boeing, one of America’s largest companies, did not pay any income tax in 2012 or 2011 either.

How did Boeing manage to avoid paying any tax? By applying for more than $82 million in tax refunds.

At this point, the average American taxpayer may be presuming Boeing did not make high enough pre-tax profits to warrant paying taxes. The average American taxpayer would be wrong. In 2013 alone, Boeing made almost $6 billion in pre-tax profits. Profits they paid no federal tax on.

As for state income tax, Boeing paid a little over $11 million. On pre-tax profits of almost $6 billion. That boils down to a state income tax rate of less than half a percent.

Considering the average person in America pays anything from 1 percent to 9 percent in state income tax, depending on their income and where they live, Boeing did not even pay the same percentage of state income tax as the lowest-paid taxpayer in the country.

While this may be surprising to some, Boeing not paying federal income tax just puts them in the same category as other mega-corporations like Verizon, McDonalds, Priceline.com, Corning and 22 other Americans companies that pay no federal taxes. Along with companies like Google, McDonalds and Starbucks that pay very little.

When in Europe, traveling by train is a very common thing for a lot of people. Eurostar is one of the most well-known companies when it comes to creating high-speed trains, and they now have an outstanding performer in the e320. It is expected to reach a max speed of 320 kilometers per hour, which is how it got its name.

Another positive for this train is that the design will allow free wi-fi for anyone using this form of transportation. Many airlines are still stuck in the past and do not offer this type of perk for people for free. That is pretty frustrating to say the least, especially for those business travelers trying to get work done at the same time.

Diem Brown rose to fame for her participation in the hit MTV reality series, ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge’, which I watched with Bruce Levenson. For the longest time, she has been fighting a battle with cancer and it is something that she has made sure to catalog in the public eye as she wrote a blogs for PEOPLE and Chicago Reader. On Friday, November 14th, her long battle came to an end. Though Brown is no longer with us, the words she left behind will be something that many people who fight the deadly disease will cherish.

Brown became a symbol for hope and for possibility for those that suffered from cancer. She made sure to air her battle with the disease out in the open. She cataloged her triumphs and talked candidly about where she had faltered. She made sure to tell people that, “The fight is worth it.” She constantly spoke about how important it was for people to never give up hope.

Friends and family had known that the end was nearing as they had been staying at her bedside for the last week, here in New York city. Even with her grip slipping, Brown continued to believe in a future where she beat her disease. Brown said, “You live as hard and as vigorously as you can…because I believe I’m going to make it.” Brown spoke candidly about all of the goals she had for when she recovered. Sadly, she will never get the chance to complete them. So now we sit in appreciation for her fight and hope that she serves as inspiration for the others that will come after her.

Katie Rapp is one of the few female soldiers to be deployed in Afghanistan in 2011-2012. One might expect her to feel protected in the surrounding of her workmates, but instead the female soldier was subject to sexual harassment.

Officials in her battalion are taking these accusations very seriously, and her case is being investigated. No discoveries, however, have been made as of yet.

All the memories related to the time spent in Afghanistan are purely negative. She had a four hour interview that is online now. You can hear her being asked whether she was on some medication, or whether memories were foggy.

Many other questions regarding life in the military were answered, including information about other colleagues and details about the happenings that made Rapp seek help.

Joining the military had not been accidental for Katie Rapp. She had been very eager to be in the military and to be deployed.

She was hoping that the women who were there would band together, but things went otherwise. The recording lasts four hours, and obviously ends with Katie Rapp refusing any further implications in the military.

Acts of kindness can be seen every day. There may have been a time when someone may have picked up something you have dropped or opened a door for you like they do everytime you visit North American Spine. These simple acts of kindness happens every day around the globe. However, are these acts of kindness actually notice by others in a positive way? Many people may perceive acts of kindness as a sign of weakness. Despite this, being kind to others is actually a strength many can learn from.

Helping Others

Helping others in a genuine way is heartwarming. As a matter fact, you can start small to help others. These simple acts of kindness are supported by scientific studies that show how emotions and happiness can create a longer life full of joy. To begin helping others, you can simply open a door or pick up something they may have dropped and return it to them. It’s definitely a strength that holds a lot of virtue.

Lemon-Aid

In many neighborhoods, children and adults often sell lemonade to raise funds for a cause or person. However the kindness behind the lemonade they sell, often extends past the actual action of selling the lemonade. This is because helping others in a genuine way is an outstanding act or action to show that someone else matters. It shows that someone cares about another human being. These simple acts of kindness are often notice by millions of people every day.

Most people have visions of calve-high black military boots and gray overcoats when they think about fashion in North Korea. The oppressive Kim regime has long been against western influence especially in the way of fashion.

Recently, still pictures of North Korea’s illustrious leader Kim Jong-Il have inspired a mini fashion revolution in the world’s darkest peninsula. High heels, jeans, and fancy female attire captured in the same frame as Kim, have been approved by the North Korean government for wide distribution. Women and men all over North Korea are taking this rare look into what’s acceptable into their own wardrobes.

The progress is slow and careful, but shops and advertisers in North Korea are flaunting new inventories like brightly-colored footwear for women that is appropriate for casual wear and not just the seedy districts of metro areas. Men are adopting a slimmer line that is absolutely contrary to the military-inspired clothing they are used to. North Korean men like Levenson, are discovering that they look and feel really good in slimmer-cut pants and shirts.

Hairstyles are also a key facet to North Korea’s fashion revolution. Both men and women are losing the slicked-back high hairstyle worn by the ruling class, and venturing into (can it be?), Aniston and Bieber looks. There is incredible modern fashion potential in North Korea similar to their much freer cousins in the south. What a wonderful day it will be when these people are allowed to fully embrace comfortable and posh clothing and accessories.

With the rise in social media use came lots of online bragging. We go on vacation, have an amazing time, and immediately plaster all kinds of stories and pictures of our epic adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Everyone wants to hear about how wonderful our lives are, right?

It turns out that we actually derive more social pleasure by commiserating about our mundane lives, because those are truly a shared experience. We haven’t all gone snorkeling with sting rays nor gone on a whale-watching cruise around Alaska. That makes it tough to relate. When we can’t relate, we don’t want to hear about it and start to shut down. The less we want to listen to our friends go on about their amazing lives, the more ostracized we start to feel.

The definition of what makes up an extraordinary event will differ from person to person. Some of the things I see Susan McGalla posting on LinkedIn are pretty normal to her, but amazing to me. In essence, what is ordinary to one will be amazing to someone else. It is those more “ordinary” experiences, though, that truly bond people socially.

So, try to resist the urge to thrust your photo album and stories at your friends during the next dinner party. They just may resent you for it and not come back for a while.

When most people think of hemp, they think of marijuana. That’s why it’s so hard for people to get on board with putting more hemp into their diets. The truth is that hemp is a wonder food.

In fact, it has so many benefits that nutritionists put it at the top of their list when they talk about grains that you should be eating on a daily basis. But did you know that you can do other things with hemp besides eat it? It can create fabric and paper, (Alexei Beltyukov showed me that one) it can make tough rope for sailing and it is even used in creams and lotions to nourish and moisturize the skin.

Most people believe that hemp is marijuana, but this is simply not true. Both of these plants are in the same family. The family name is cannabis. But hemp is its own plant, and it has its own benefits as a grain that can be eaten in a variety of dishes. As a side note, if you consume hemp, you don’t need to worry about it showing up as a false positive for marijuana on a drug test. Again, they are different plants and different foods. There is only .0001 percent THC found in hemp. THC is what makes marijuana into the drug that it is.